Aiken Community Playhouse's 'Prodigal Son' has a message

By Charmain Z. BrackettCorrespondent

Thursday

Aug 9, 2018 at 2:01 AM

Dave Howard was eager to direct the Aiken Community Playhouse’s production of "Prodigal Son."

A decade ago, he directed "Doubt: A Parable," which is a story about a priest suspected of an improper relationship with a student. Because "Prodigal Son" is another of John Patrick Shandley’s plays, Howard knew the story would be a great one.

“I read the script and that plot twist really hooked me,” Howard said of "Prodigal Son." “I’m glad to be working with one of my favorite playwrights.”

While the plot twist itself is a spoiler, the basic premise of "Prodigal Son" surrounds a troubled teen who is violent, but gifted and is sent to a private school in New Hampshire after he’s kicked out of a parochial school. The school is his last chance for academic success. There, the teachers must help him realize he has potential and attempt to save him from his own destruction.

The main character asks a question at the beginning and ending of the play.

“Do you remember 15? For me, it was a special, beautiful room in hell.”

The play itself is Shandley’s memoir. It’s his life in the mid-1960s. Shandley, a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, directed the production in 2016 at New York’s Manhattan Theatre Club and chose Timothee Chalamet to play the lead role of Jim Quinn. Chalamet received an Oscar nomination for his role in the 2017 film, "Call Me By Your Name."

With a small cast, Aiken Community Playhouse will present the intense drama in the theater’s black box for two weekends beginning Aug. 17.

Howard suggests parental guidance on the show which features strong adult language and other themes. He said the drama has a message behind it and hopes people will leave considering it.

The play shows that people don’t have to be locked into what society says, but they can break free and make their own path, he said.